A/N: Extra HUGE special thanks to SKRowling for helping me with writing this chapter!
The Hollywood Recreation Center was a sprawling system of facilities that hosted tons of indoor and outdoor activities.
They also had spaces that could be rented out for special functions.
Lauren and her friends entered multi-purpose building #C-3. That was where candidates were told to convene.
Everyone's jaw dropped at the sheer number of people who came out. Lauren expected a turnout but not a few hundred. Xander Tundra was typically based out of New York, so the announcement that he was working on something over here was a big deal. And word apparently traveled to every musical theater hopeful in the area.
The only clue for Xander Tundra's latest production was the story would depict teenagers, so they had to look the part. The tryouts ran the gamut from a couple years younger than Lauren to about twenty years older. You'd be surprised who can pass for a teen. One guy with peppered hair stood out from the others. Even if he dyed his hair, there was still the crow's feet and other attributes to a man who was his age on the nose.
"Okay, 21 Jump Street" Billy snickered to Chase.
Mia shook her head and focused on her friend, who was pretty quiet all the way to the rec center.
"Listen, Lo... You can do this." Mia said, gassing Lauren up.
Lauren had helped her audition for Hollywood arts. When her confidence and her love of dance was at its lowest point, Lauren was there for her. She had helped Mia rediscover the love of something that could lift her higher than anything. Mia remembered that after she had talked to Lauren, it had given her perspective, that Her dad would still be there for her through dance. Sure, Lauren hasn't lost immediate family in this case, but her voice is a very big part of her.
It's so easy being a big fish in a little pond like Hollywood Arts. Her friend had tried something bigger, and she hadn't failed... but she hadn't won, and Mia needed to make sure she tried again.
She glanced at Chase, who had walked off to get Lauren some water, and then turned back to Lauren.
Mia put her hands on her best friend's shoulders.
"This is... your very first step to getting back your groove. You love to sing and perform, and I need you to remember that."
"Mia... I don't know," Lauren sighed. "Everything I've done lately, I just..."
"Those things weren't worthy of your voice. They weren't for you." Mia said. "What did your grandma say to you? You told me once that she said, the things that are for you no one can take from you because God set it aside for you."
Lauren tilted her head, not used to being preached to by Mia. The subject of faith had never been a point of contention between the two. Mia had left herself open to the spiritual were it to manifest. Where she to witness something miraculous, she might assume it was a deception. But that vision she had of her father when she was as close to near death as she had ever been...it was hard to shrug off. It felt so visceral.
Maybe there isn't a God in the Judeo-Christian sense, but perhaps a force of pure creation and light that ran from the tiniest creature all the way to the galaxies of the universe. Whatever might be at the controls would recognize that Lauren was one of the best people to walk across this rock and the people she loves were pulling for her.
"I know I'm not religious. but dude... that's pretty damn cool if you do believe in God. There's no pressure, you just try and reach for what He has for you, and if it is for you... then it will be."
"I hope it is for me because I could use the win," Lauren said in a sort of Joke.
Lauren smiled at what Mia was saying because it was true that her grandma had said something like that. Sometimes she forgets not to be afraid, and what Mia told her was a good reminder that she had to reach for what she'd prayed for. And she had prayed. The better part of the night before after she got home from the Beach, she prayed because she wasn't sure she was going to go through with it. And she prayed when she picked the right song for this audition.
(THE SONG!)
Panic crept up Lauren's face as she frantically checked her pockets.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" soothed Billy.
"Free advice, toe head" huffed Mia. "Never tell a girl to calm down."
"The song, where's the song? I need the..."
"Sweetie," Mia said, opening her backpack and taking out the sheet music. "It's right here. You didn't forget."
Mia made the point of holding onto the papers for Lauren in fear that her sweaty hands would ruin them. Or, in a fit of nervousness accidentally rip them.
Lauren clutched her chest and shut her eyes.
"I'm a mess," she chuckled.
Mia hugged the girl tightly.
"You've got this, Lauren!"
"Must've said that a thousand times," she smiled.
"It would take a thousand people before I found a friend as good as you."
"Awww," Billy grinned. "That was sweet."
(He's right, when did I become such a marshmallow?)
Chase got back to them as Lauren took a deep breath. Mia's pep-talk had worked. She had the best friends in the world.
"Here's your water," Chase said handing it to her. "Room temperature so it doesn't ruin your vocal cords."
"Good job!" Mia said, mussing up his hair which made him recoil in annoyance. They really were siblings at heart.
"You're the best," she said hugging him. Chase wrapped his long arms around her and squeezed hoping to give her the same support she had given him when he'd been afraid of singing in front of people.
"This ain't the only chance you'll get," he whispered to her. "Just have fun with it, sing your heart out."
An hour later, it was Billy's turn to go. He cleared his throat and looked down at his music.
"What did you pick, by the way?" asked Chase.
"You'll Be Back from Hamilton," he replied.
"Really?" Lauren smiled.
Billy gave the little salute.
"Wish me luck!"
He walked through a door which led to a small community theatre stage where the actually auditions took place.
It did help Lauren's nerves that they didn't have to witness every single performance prior to her own. The exit must have been elsewhere because Billy or the other tryouts didn't return.
Now a few minutes had passed it was Lauren's time.
"We'll be outside, okay?" Chase said, kissing her forehead.
"And when you're done, we'll get some lunch" added Mia.
"Thanks...both of you" she grinned.
"Break a leg, Queen!" Mia smirked with a fist pump.
Lauren gulped and entered through the big wooden door that led to the boards of the stage. A spotlight was pointed at the center and an assistant indicated that she was to stand there.
"State your name, please and what piece you will perform!"
The voice was without a discernible source. The light shone upon her so brightly that she couldn't focus beyond the stage.
"Um...my name is Lauren Jackson...and I will be singing 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Misérables."
"Please give Roger there your sheet music and you may begin."
Lauren nodded and rushed over to the pianist, who accepted her music with a grin.
"Good choice," he whispered to her.
She smiled back and went back to face the audience.
Lauren closed her eyes as Roger on the piano began the first strains of the song, then she began.
"There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong"
Figuring no news was good news and she wasn't dismissed straight away, Lauren continued on. Only now she allowed her voice to rise, and it started filling the space.
"I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted
She began to tear up, letting the music wash over her. It didn't feel like she was singing a song but that she was in the scene.
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we'll live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So much different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed."
Lauren cleared her throat afterward, not just from the energy it took to sing that but also this was a particularly emotional raw part of the musical. She would get choked up at the moment when Fatine would sing of regret and hopelessness.
The spotlight on her relented some and she was able to make out the trio of adults just seconds before they politely clapped.
"That was really well done!" the lady in the middle said.
"Yes, definitely the caliber we are looking for," added a balding fellow to her right.
Lauren couldn't believe her luck. She nailed the audition, at least she believed she did. The girl chalked up their chilled enthusiasm as a way to conserve their nerves. All day singers would perform for them, and they would run out of steam in the first hour if they gave impassioned standing ovations to everyone that applied.
They nodded amongst themselves as they wrote something down in a red notebook.
"Thank you, Miss Jackson. You may go now."
(Does that mean I'm a maybe? Just calm down, girl. Calm down!)
Lauren exited the auditorium where she nearly bumped into Mia and Chase.
"So?" she asked, holding her hands together.
"I don't know," Lauren shrugged. "I... guess they liked it."
Billy startled her when he got close.
"What did they say exactly?"
"Um, they said it sounded alright and then they wrote something in a red ledger."
She got a further surprise when he hugged her.
"You did it, kid! You did it!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Chase.
"When I went up," Billy explained. "They thanked me and all but basically shot me down on the spot. I was in key, but I couldn't project my voice worth shit!"
He broke the hug, allowing the singer to breathe.
"That means she's in the running at least. I heard a few kids talking about a red book."
"Sorry you didn't get it," Lauren sincerely told him.
"Yeah, well maybe with some training I can get it next time. But hey, I didn't get booed so that's an improvement over fifth grade."
Chase and Mia looked at each other.
"What happened in the fifth grade?" asked Mia.
"The less you know, the better" Billy shuddered.
Lauren admired the boy's confidence. He jumped both feet into this audition and was fine about getting rejected. She wished she could be as unflappable as that.
Chase held her close and she clung to him.
"Told you you got this," he murmured in her ear. Lauren released this breath from within her. It was full of relief and gratitude that her friends were there.
"I can't believe it..." she said softly. "Not just trying out but I didn't bomb."
He kissed her forehead and she dropped her head to his shoulder as they swayed together.
"So what's your monologue?" Billy asked while her face was still buried in Chase's neck.
Lauren froze. She had only been worried about the singing, she was so stressed before about her voice not being on par, now this... she wasn't an actress. She avoided plays at school like the plague.
(That's right. This isn't a concert, this is theater. I can't act! What was I thinking?)
"Billy!" Mia admonished pushing at his head with her fingertips. he was undoing all of her hard work. "Lo... What God Has for you!" Mia reminded her.
"But I didn't prepare," Lauren said.
"Lauren you know monologues" Chase assured her. "You did something emotional and sad. Look through your phone, maybe you have a funny monologue you can pull from? Show your range?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea... " Mia nodded.
Like that one, you did for Shapiro's class last month?" Billy said trying to encourage his friend. "I thought it was really funny."
Lauren breathed in. She'd come this far. She passed the singing part. She couldn't give up.
"Okay... yeah, I think I still remember most of it."
She turned and pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked for the text Billy had been talking about.
"I'm gonna...yeah," Lauren said as she walked with her friends.
"It'll be alright," Mia told her. "Let's get some food in you. It's amazing they heard you over your stomach."
Lauren blushed as she held her belly.
"Sorry, I guess I'm the opposite of a nervous eater. My appetite goes away when the anxiety moves in."
Chase held her hand.
"Come on, how about some sushi?" he offered.
"That sounds amazing right now," she sighed.